9-Amigos

9

Amigos

In pressure-filled situations there are certain kinds of people who have the uncanny ability to rise to the occasion.  In the heat of danger they, like some kind of mythical phoenix, unfurl their wings and bring forth courage that is unshakable.

The Doctor was not this kind of person.

“We are college kids.  Eisenhower inherited the rights to the rig from his dead dad or some shit, so we came to party.”  The Doctor was telling the General everything with very little coercion.

“How many of you are there?” The General asked, sternly.

“Ten,” The Doctor answered immediately and without hesitation.  “No, eleven.  I keep forgetting the Mexican.”

The General’s eyebrow went up.  “Mexican?”

The Doctor nodded.  “Yeah, we have him tied up in one of the briefing rooms.  He calls himself some weird name like, cat door… or cod roar or something like that…”

The General’s head cocked to the side as The Doctor franticly searched his mind for the right name.  “Cazador?”

The Doctor stopped sputtering nonsense as soon as the General said the name.  “Yeah, that’s it.”

The General’s mouth slowly curled into a smile.  “You college kids captured Cazador?”  He began to laugh out loud. “This is going to be a good day!”

He then said something In Spanish to the rest of his men and they all began to laugh together, loudly.  The Doctor was confused, so he began to laugh loudly, too.

The General noticed that The Doctor was laughing and stopped.

His men stopped.

They all stared at The Doctor, who cut his laughter off quickly.

 “Tell me, Gringo,” the General said, “what about this situation do you find funny?”

The Doctor shrugged.  “Sorry, I’m terrible with peer pressure.”

The General nodded and grinned.  “This is what you will do.  You will lead my men to all of your friends and they will round you all up and put you in the mess hall.  You will then lead me to Cazador.”

The General turned and seemed to give these instructions to one of his men in Spanish.  He then turned back to The Doctor.

“Do you think I could put some shorts on?” The Doctor asked.

One of the Mexicans racked the slide on his AK-47.

“I’m gonna take that as a no.”  The Doctor said, and snapped into movement, walking past.  The Mexicans all fell into line behind the very scared, naked medical student.

The General looked out over the ocean and slowly put a Cuban cigar to his lips before lighting it.  He took a long drag…

“Cazador,” he spoke to himself, “right under my own nose the whole time.”

****  

Ein shut the door behind him slowly.  Kim was standing behind him, staring.  The waves of embarrassment were starting to hit him now that his internal conflict had been quelled.  The fact that he had just spent the last ten minutes crying in front of a beautiful woman who he barely knew, was catching up with him.

God, I looked like a fairy.

 He slowly turned to meet Kim’s gaze.  She was wearing a soft smile and the look of someone who was concerned.  Pity too.  Of course there was pity in her eyes.  Ein saw it and hated it.  He hated himself.

“I…I… er…. Um… I’m really, really s-s-s-ssorry about that in there…  I just don’t know w-w-w-w-what came over-” Ein stumbled through the explanation.  His stutter was made worse by the situation.

Kim shook her head and cut him off.  “Stop.  Really, its okay.”

“No it isn’t.”  Ein said, his gaze returning to the floor.  His frustration was clear.

Kim seemed to think for a second.  “I’m sorry.  I just thought you would want to see that. I didn’t think it would bother you so much.”

Ein’s face became a shaky smile.  “No, I’m glad I saw it.”

Kim looked confused, “Why?”

“It helped me come to a decision.”  He said, a little confidence coming into his eyes.

Kim smiled and paused.  “Let’s go get some food, Ein.  I want to tell you something.”

Ein smiled, happy to be off the subject.  “Sounds g-g-g-good.”

That was when they heard the shots.

****

 Cazador’s eyes came open as the door knob began to twist.  He took a deep breath and centered himself.  He would have to find a way to get out of this chair and off this rig fast.  He knew Chavez would be here soon and then it would be too late.

The door swung open.  Cazador sighed as he watched to machine gun toting, Mexican soldiers move into the room and clear it for hostiles in a standard fashion.  One of them yelled the word ‘Clear’ in Spanish and in walked Cazador’s nightmare.

It was officially too late.

The General, who Cazador knew as Chavez, stood in front of him, frowning.

Chavez looked Cazador over and his frown twisted into a smile and then, into a loud laugh.

“Are you serious?”  Chavez said in Spanish between the laughter.  “The Great Cazador, tied to a chair brought down by spring breakers?!”

Cazador frowned and exhaled, showing his frustration.  Chavez continued, “The man whose code name is ‘The Hunter’!  Taken down by Doogie Howser and his friends!”  The laughter continued to the point where Chavez had to prop himself on the wall to keep from falling over.

“You know, my old friend,” Chavez continued to mock Cazador.  “If I had known that all I had to do was send the cast of ‘90210’ after you, I would have done it years ago!”

Cazador had had enough.  “We haven’t been friends for a long time Chavez.”

Chavez smiled and brought his laughter under control.  “Come now, is that really any way to talk to an ex-comrade?”

“How’s the eye?” Cazador asked.  The humor in Chavez’s tone emptied from him like the water in a dirty tub after the plug had been pulled.  Even one of the guards seemed to sweat as the tone completely changed.

Chavez stepped in and slapped Cazador across the face.  He then grabbed Cazador’s hair and ripped his head back with his left hand.  Chavez’s right drew a larger scary looking bowie knife and pressed it to Cazador’s cheek.

“I have waited a long time for this… old friend.”  Chavez said the last part with a certain amount of hatred which was reserved for this situation.

“I’m going to take my time.  I’m going to carve you up, and then, I’m going to kill you.” Chavez continued.

“Promises, promises,” Cazador spat out the words, covered in hatred.

Chavez smiled, his dirty breath wafting over Cazador’s face.  “Don’t worry.  I will make sure to lie your body out next to that whore.  I want you to see how little you lost your life for.”

Chavez released his hair and in the distance, a series of gunshots could be heard. Chavez’s smile returned to him, “Right now, I have to tend to my unexpected guests.”

He turned and left.  As he did, he gave the order to guard Cazador to the two men in the room.

****

Harriet was hurled into the mess hall by her arm with such force that she stumbled, rolling into the makeshift dance floor from the night before.  She regained her footing and saw Thad and five of the women that The Doctor had brought.  She knew she wouldn’t be able to remember their names.

One of the four Mexicans with large guns fired a quick burst into the air.  All of the girls screamed in fear when he did this, then seemed to shrink away into silence.  Thad had the same face of panic that she had seen in the hallway.  Harriet could tell he was fighting his demons and that he would be useless.

Harriet stood.  “What the hell is going on?” she asked the Mexican who seemed to be in charge.

He said nothing.

“I asked you a question!” She yelled, pushing her glasses up her nose and advancing on the Mexican.

“SILENCIO!” The Mexican yelled and stepped in back, handing her with such force, her glasses came off and skidded across the floor.  She staggered and hit the ground.

“Harriet!”  Thad finally seemed to break his curse and moved to her.  “Are you okay?”

Harriet grabbed her glasses and brushed the blood from her lip.  “Fantastic.”

Finally, a big scary looking General with an eye patch walked in.  Behind him was the very naked Doctor, a gun to the back of his head.

This must be Chavez.

Chavez surveyed the room, as if doing a head count.  “There are only seven.  Did you lie to me, naked man?”

The Doctor shook his head.  “Of course not, you’re missing two.”

Thad’s face dropped.  “You mother fucker.  What the hell are you doing?!”

The Doctor ignored Thad.  “One of them is an Asian girl and the other is a short pudgy kid that stutters all the time.  He’s the one that owns the rig.  It was his idea to-”

It was hard to continue to talk to Chavez as Thad’s right hand connected to the side of The Doctor’s face with so much force, it sent the naked man toppling, ass over head, to the floor.

“You piece of shit!”  Thad screamed at him and in an instant there were four machine guns aimed at his head, as well as Chavez’s holstered automatic pistol.

Thad froze in his spot and Chavez walked over.  “I can understand your anger.  I too, know what it is to be betrayed by a comrade, but I would like to ask that you refrain from further outbursts.  Okay?”

Thad nodded, the fear returning to his eyes.

Chavez turned to the room.  “This goes for everyone here.  Please be patient while we look for your friends.  If you are not, one these men here, will shoot you.”

Chavez turned to walk out and one of his soldiers looked at him and spoke in Spanish.  “Sir, why not kill them all now?”

Chavez shook his head.  “We find the others and kill them together.  You four, watch this room.  I have two on Cazador.  I will take the remaining four of us and find the Americans.”

The soldier nodded then Chavez looked at him with a smile.  “Then, we have some fun.”

****

“This way.”  Kim said as she grabbed Ein’s arm.

They began to run through the hallways of the rig.  Ein was  instantly confused.  “Kim, where are we going?  What the hell were those, gunshots?  And more importantly, how do you know where you are going? ”

“Just trust me!”  She said as they moved through the halls.

Suddenly, she stopped then looked around as if getting her bearings.  She then seemed to focus on a large section of the wall.  She walked up to it and popped some kind of level.  The wall opened into what had to be a storage closet.  Kim grabbed Ein and shoved him into the small space.  She got in after him, their bodies pressing up against each other without any extra room to move.

“Kim I-I-I-I-I don’t think we s-s-s-should be doing this right … er... um… now.” Ein said, blushing heavily.

Kim pressed her hand over his mouth.  “Shhhh!” She whispered, and they were silent. Kim motioned for Ein’s attention to go to the small vented window in the door.  He watched as the five men moved past and down the hall.  They were speaking in Spanish and one of them seemed to laugh at something as they moved on.

Kim slowly took her hand off Ein’s mouth.  He whispered angrily, “What in the hell is going on?!”

“I haven’t been honest with you,” Kim said, quietly.

Ein looked at her.  “I can see that!”

“We have to move, just-” Kim started, but Ein cut her off.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on!”  Ein said, rooting himself in place.

Kim frowned.  “It’s a long story.”

“Give me the abridged version, then.”  Ein responded stubbornly.

Kim sighed, knowing she’d have to come clean….

TO BE CONTINUED….